We Three Jacksons: Fourth of July 2011

Andrew and I are taking advantage of being in New England for the Fourth of July. Last year, we went to NYC and saw their fireworks. This year was Boston, and we're thinking next year may be Philadelphia.
But, like I said, this year was Boston and it was such a great place to be to celebrate the Fourth. We had an amazing time (and did a ton of walking - for which we are now paying). We left New Haven around 11:00 and were in Cambridge by 2:00. After parking our car at a friend's house (thank you so much, Amanda and Alton) and visiting for a bit, we were off.
We took the train into Boston, but first made a frozen yogurt stop at Pink Berry. Delicious! Once in Boston, we walked around Boston Common for a while, and cooled our feet in a "wading pool/pond" type area.
Then we decided to try a Walking Tour of Benjamin Franklin's homes and haunts. It was a really great tour and very interesting to see locations where Benjamin Franklin grew up and worked before moving on to Philadelphia. I say locations because the original buildings were wooden and are no longer there. They burned down in the Great Fire. Still fascinating though, and definitely appropriate to learn more about one of our Founding Fathers on Independence Day.
After completing the Walking Tour, we walked over to the Prudential building where we met up with some other friends who are in Boston for the summer. We had dinner together and then headed over to the MIT side of the Charles River to prepare to watch the fireworks. We missed a lot of the concert, but were still able to catch some of it, which was nice. It was fun to hear the Boston Pops playing and Martina McBride was performing and we were able to catch a few of her songs as well. Then, the fireworks started and it was AMAZING! The fireworks were set to music (as many are, but one is not always able to hear said music when at a live show - we could definitely hear the music at this one!). The fireworks were huge and beautiful. I took pictures of them (of course!), but the pictures do not do them justice. The finale was really impressive. Overall, it was a stellar show and we all enjoyed it very much! Thanks, Amanda and Russell, for hanging out and watching the fireworks with us. We had a really great time!